Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Trane
Search every verified M. Hagood interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a November 2020 interview for the Elevate Digital "America 2.0" series, Steve Hagood, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Trane Technologies, discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic had changed his perspective on leadership and remote work. Hagood said he had come to appreciate the importance of family, friends, and colleagues, and described leaning into qualities he already aspired to, such as being an empathetic, servant leader who listens first. He noted that while video conferencing and remote capabilities had been available for years, the pandemic had led his company to embrace them more fully, finding that productivity remained high and prompting a rethinking of the necessity of travel and in-person meetings. Hagood also commented on the broader societal response to the pandemic, expressing admiration for how the world community had come together to take similar actions, even when implemented locally. He emphasized the importance of conducting constructive lessons learned to improve crisis management and risk planning, both for society and within Trane Technologies. Additionally, he highlighted the positive qualities he had observed in people, such as community participation and helping others, and called for those stories to be celebrated.
“The first things that come to my mind are quite frankly really appreciating the things that are most important in your life — your family, your friends, the people you do work with who are also our family — and being really empathetic.”
“I'm leaning into leadership qualities I already aspire to — being an empathetic, servant leader, really looking to listen first to your people rather than talking to them first; those traits feel even more accentuated when you can't be physically face to face.”
“Video conference technology and remote capabilities have been with us for years, but now we're really embracing them — by and large we're finding we're still very, very productive, so we're rethinking the idea that you have to travel and be face to face for so many things.”
“I've had calls that would have been conference calls become web meetings and it's been really enjoyable — we've bonded and been able to interact visually in ways that wouldn't have happened when it was just scheduled as a phone call.”
In this first part of our series by Elevate Digital, America 2.0 focuses on modern, people-centric leadership. We are excited to host Steve Hagood, CIO for Trane Technologies. https://www.elevate-digital.com/
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